HUMMEL : Piano Sonatas (Stephen Hough) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

 Tracklist & Credits

SCHARWENKA : Piano Concerto No 4 In F Minor ♦ SAUER : Piano Concerto No 1 In E Minor (Stephen Hough, City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra · Lawrence Foster) (1995) Serie The Romantic Piano Concerto – 11 | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Scharwenka was one of the most beloved of musical figures during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His Concerto No 4 in F minor, written in 1908, was greeted at its premiere with astonishing enthusiasm from an audience ‘which may, without exaggeration, be said to have included almost every pianist – virtuoso, teacher and student – in Berlin’. Two years later Scharwenka was to give his first performance of the work at a concert in New York. The conductor was Gustav Mahler. Emil Von Sauer’s compositions have suffered from an even greater neglect, wholly unjustifiable, than Scharwenka’s. The E minor Concerto had already gone through eight printings by 1908 when he performed it in Chicago: “It was no matter for astonishment that when the pianist-composer had brought the work to its conclusion a storm of genuine enthusiasm should seep the house from gallery to floor … Mr Sauer represents a school of piano-playing that has all but vanished. The pianists who are now moulding the taste of the public are, one and all, engaged in the questionable task of reproducing with their instruments effects that are orchestral … but in the meantime we are in danger of forgetting the joys of pure pianism. To such joys Mr Sauer has awakened us.” Two first recordings, played by one of the greatest virtuoso pianists today. Hyperion

Franz Xaver Scharwenka (1850-1924)

Piano Concerto No 4 in F minor Op 82 [39'18]
        
Emil von Sauer (1862-1942)
    
Piano Concerto No 1 in E minor [29'53]

Credits :
Conductor – Lawrence Foster
Leader [City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra] – Peter Thomas
Orchestra – City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Piano – Stephen Hough

MENDELSSOHN : Piano Concerto No 1 In G Minor • Piano Concerto No 2 In D Minor • Capriccio Brillant, Op 22 • Rondo Brillant, Op 29 • Serenade And Allegro Giocoso, Op 43 (Stephen Hough · City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra · Lawrence Foster) (1997) Serie The Romantic Piano Concerto – 17 | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

This disc brings together, for the first time to our knowledge, all of Mendelssohn's published works for piano and orchestra. Mendelssohn was regarded as one of the foremost pianists of his day, Clara Schumann describing him as 'the dearest pianist of all'. While his works for the instrument are by no means as numerous as those of, say, Liszt or Chopin, they are models of the nineteenth-century genre and filled with melodious charm.

The First Concerto is actually the earliest work on this disc, despite its opus number, and is the work that Liszt sight-read from a scribbled score to an astonished Mendelssohn when the two composers met in Paris. The Second Concerto saw its premiere— appropriately enough given the orchestra performing on this disc—in Birmingham during the festival of 1837. The remaining three works find Mendelssohn in light-hearted mood, showing off his knack for melody and unaffected charm to the full. Hyperion

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Capriccio Brillant In B Minor Op 22     10:39

Piano Concerto No 1 In G Minor Op 25     (19:30)

Rondo Brillant In E Flat Major Op 29     10:45

Piano Concerto No 2 In D Minor Op 40     (21:02)

Serenade And Allegro Giocoso In B Minor Op 43     12:48

Credits :
Conductor – Lawrence Foster
Leader – Peter Thomas
Orchestra – City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Piano – Stephen Hough

SAINT SAËNS : The Complete Works For Piano And Orchestra (Stephen Hough · City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra · Sakari Oramo) (2002) 2CD | Serie The Romantic Concerto – 27 | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

It is surprising, given the popularity of the repertoire, that all the recordings of Saint-Saëns' complete concertos currently before the public pre-date the CD era and none of them are fully digital. In addition it has never before been possible to obtain all the composer's output for piano and orchestra on only two CDs. For these reasons alone this latest addition to the 'Romantic Piano Concerto' series is likely to become one of the most successful of all. The Gramophone 'Record of the Year' winning team of Stephen Hough and the CBSO are joined by their new principle conductor Sakari Oramo in performances which combine all the elegance required for the Frenchman's music with the utmost bravura. Saint-Saëns himself was a formidable pianist and his rare 1904 (!) 78rpm recording of Africa has until now been matchless; finally in Stephen Hough's performance he has a rival.

With so much in its favour we are quite confident that this new cycle of these piano concertos will become the benchmark recording for many years to come. Hyperion

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
                
CD1.
Piano Concerto No 1 in D major Op 17 [26'02]
                
Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor Op 22 [21'43]
                   
Piano Concerto No 3 in E flat major Op 29 [25'48]

CD2.
Piano Concerto No 5 in F major Op 103[27'07]

Rapsodie D'Auvergne For Piano And Orchestra Op 73    8:02

Allegro Appassionato For Piano And Orchestra Op 70    5:00

Africa Fantasie For Piano And Orchestra Op 89    9:43

Credits :
Conductor – Sakari Oramo
Leader – Peter Thomas
Orchestra – City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Piano – Stephen Hough

TCHAIKOVSKY : The Three Piano Concertos • Concert Fantasia (Stephen Hough · Minnesota Orchestra · Osmo Vänskä) 2CD (2010) Serie The Romantic Piano Concerto – 50 | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

The Romantic Piano Concerto series reaches Volume 50. This series has been described as a jewel in Hyperion’s crown and one of the glories of the recording industry. Rarely in the history of recorded music has such a rich seam of undiscovered delights been mined to such consistently dazzling effect. These first fifty volumes include 131 works for piano and orchestra: fifty-nine of these works are premiere recordings and many other featured works have only been recorded once before. The performers include some of the greatest pianists, orchestras and conductors in the world, and each disc in itself is a miracle of virtuosity, scholarship and musicianship.

For Volume 50, a stellar cast has been assembled for a two-disc set that includes, unusually, one of the most famous concertos in the repertoire. Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 has certainly achieved warhorse status—but in the expert hands of Stephen Hough it is a new creature. With the rest of this fascinating two-disc set we are in more usual RPC territory, with music which is actually not widely known. This is a complete survey of Tchaikovsky’s music for piano and orchestra and includes alternative versions of the second movement of Piano Concerto No 2 as well as some delicious extras.

Stephen Hough performed all four concertos at the BBC Proms in 2009 and was described as ‘the epitome of a “golden age” virtuoso with his balletic elegance and dazzling rhythmic reflexes’ (The Independent). Armed with this inestimably important experience, he travelled to Minnesota to record the set live with the Minnesota Orchestra under their acclaimed conductor Osmo Vänskä. The result is a set of unique importance: a winning combination of a pianist at the zenith of his artistry, a world-class orchestra and director, a pre-eminent producer and engineer, repertoire both familiar and unknown, and packaged with even more than the usual care that customers have come to expect from Hyperion. Hyperion

Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
1. Piano Concerto No 1 In B Flat Minor Op 23 (32:17)

Concert Fantasia In G Major Op 56 (28:24)

2. Piano Concerto No 2 In G Major Op 44 (39:42)

Piano Concerto No 3 In E Flat Major Op 75 Allegro Brillante 14:42

Piano Concerto No 2: Andante Non Troppo 7:06
Cello – Anthony Ross
Score Editor [Ed.] – Siloti
Violin – Lim Kyu-Young

Piano Concerto No 2: Andante Non Troppo 13:55
Cello – Anthony Ross
Score Editor [Ed.] – Hough
Violin – Jorja Fleezanis

Credits :
Conductor – Osmo Vänskä
Orchestra – Minnesota Orchestra
Piano – Stephen Hough

The Romantic Piano Concerto • 11 - Scharwenka : Piano Concerto No. 4 in F minor; Sauer : Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor (1995) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The Romantic Piano Concerto • 17 - Mendelssohn : Piano Concerti Nos. 1 & 2; Capriccio Brillant; Rondo Brillant (1997) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

 
 

The Romantic Piano Concerto • 27 - Saint-Saëns : The Complete works for piano & orchestra (2001) 2CD / FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

 

This two-disc set of the complete works for piano and orchestra is a splendid introduction to a significant aspect of the composer's oeuvre. Including the five piano concertos, the set enables the listener to trace the composer's development in this genre, from the quintessentially Romantic Concerto No. 1 through the many intriguing idiosyncrasies and structural metamorphoses of the subsequent concertos, to the seductively atmospheric Concerto No. 5 ("Egyptian") and admirable synthesis of exuberant energy, uninhibited expressiveness, elegantly stylized exoticism, and effervescent virtuosity. With his faultless technique, artistic sophistication, and graceful yet powerful pianism, soloist Stephen Hough is the perfect interpreter of these concertos, masterfully following the composer's trajectory from the relatively unproblematic Romanticism of the earlier concertos to the subjectivity and refined esotericism of the later works. In addition to purely technical challenges, which reflect the composer's stupendous mastery of the keyboard, Saint-Saëns' concertos require extraordinary attention to subtle shifts of color and tonal quality. In other words, if "brilliance" is a fundamental quality of this music, it is up to the pianist to differentiate between the numerous shades of brilliance in accordance with the composer's quicksilver imagination and swift flow of ideas. And Hough finds superb accompaniment in the precise and richly expressive playing of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sakari Oramo. The set also includes four shorter works: the delicately charming Wedding Cake Valse-Caprice, Op. 76, the nostalgic and thoughtful Rapsodie d'Auvergne, the brilliantly lyrical Allegro appassionato, and the opulently exotic fantasy Africa. In this vast, luminous, vibrant panorama of the great French composer's oeuvre for piano and orchestra, listeners will find exceptional guides in Stephen Hough and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. by Zoran Minderovic